Week in Review
Upcoming events, ways to take action, and articles to read.
JVP Health Advisory Council Urgent Health Update: Consequences of war on Gaza, the West Bank/East Jerusalem, and Lebanon - June 6, 2026
Please read and share widely.
Events & Action Alerts
SAVE THE DATE: July 12, 2026, 10 am Pacific, 1 pm Eastern, Jewish Voice for Peace Health Advisory Council webinar on Palantir and its encroaching influence on health care. Official info and registration coming.
Force Microsoft to stop collaborating with Israeli genocide! Your pressure led Microsoft to terminate its contract with Israel’s Unit 8200, but that is not enough – they are still supporting the surveillance and murder of Palestinians. Tell them to end all collaboration with Israeli genocide.
Demand Congress pass the Americans Insist on Political Agent Clarity (AIPAC) Act, legislation that requires AIPAC lobbyists to register as foreign agents.
Petition: Suspend the Israeli Medical Association from the World Medical Association
Peoples Health Movement and other health organizations launched a renewed call to boycott the Israeli Medical Association over its complicity in genocide – while demands for the release of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya and other Palestinian health workers persist. “The first phase of the new campaign is focused on this year’s WMA Congress in Rotterdam, Netherlands, in October 2026. In preparation for the congress, the coordinators of the campaign are collecting signatures from healthcare workers and organizing physicians to petition their national medical associations to call for the suspension of IMA from the WMA and cut all ties with the IMA.”
Article Highlights
5/3/26: Infectious disease specialist Dr. Salman Khan: patients are developing antibiotic resistance. “Due in part to ongoing restrictions on the entry of lifesaving medicines by the Israeli occupation, the antibiotic supply is severely limited in Gaza, often changing week to week based on availability of donations from the World Health Organization. Patients unnecessarily die from often treatable infections because of delays in receiving effective antibiotic therapy.” The “collapse of the healthcare system, overwhelming overcrowding in and around hospitals, and breakdown of hygiene and sanitation infrastructure all conspired to facilitate the spread of multidrug-resistant bacteria and exacerbate Gaza’s antimicrobial resistance burden.” Read the full article here.
5/14/26: “The secret mission to rescue the UN’s vital Palestinian refugee archive” by Jason Burke: “Millions of documents chronicling generations of trauma were saved from Gaza and East Jerusalem in a 10-month UNRWA operation that was difficult and sometimes dangerous. The significance of the archives, much of which detailed Palestinians’ experiences as they fled or were forced from their homes during the wars that led to the foundation of Israel in 1948, was clear. ‘Their destruction would have been catastrophic … If there is ever a just and durable solution to this conflict, then this is the only evidence people can use to show there were once Palestinians living in a particular place,’ said Roger Hearn, a senior UNRWA official who oversaw the operation.” Read the full article here.
5/14/26: “‘As doctors, we are effectively blinded’: Inside Gaza’s MRI crisis”, Jinin Rummaneh: “With all machines destroyed or rendered useless by Israel’s siege, [physicians and other healthcare workers] cannot diagnose their patients, forced instead to practice a desperate form of triage. This technological void has reverted the quality of care in Gaza from the era of evidence-based medicine back to clinical approximation and symptomatic treatment. Gaza’s physicians are forced to rely on their own intuition or CT scans, which image cross-sections of the body but cannot provide the soft tissue or neurological detail needed to diagnose complex conditions.” Read the full article here.
5/20/26: "High Court Upholds Rules Requiring Gaza, West Bank Aid Groups to Hand Over Employee Lists", Nir Hasson: Israel’s High Court upheld regulations requiring international aid organizations to provide employee information in order to continue operating in Gaza and the West Bank. Aid groups argue that compliance could violate European privacy laws and may force many organizations to reduce or cease operations. Attorneys for the humanitarian aid organizations emphasized that without the NGOs, “a severe and unavoidable deterioration in the situation on the ground will unfold.” Read the full article here.
5/25/26: “Humanitarian Conditions in Gaza Deteriorating Again, Aid Groups Warn”, Nir Hasson & Linda Dayan. “Humanitarian organizations report worsening conditions in Gaza, including rising child malnutrition, shortages of medical supplies, inadequate sanitation, and limited reconstruction efforts. Aid groups emphasize that while more food is entering Gaza, many families cannot afford it, and essential infrastructure remains severely damaged. They also report that Israeli restrictions on ‘dual-use’ materials and aid organizations have hampered recovery and humanitarian assistance.” Read the full article here.
5/27/26: Why did the American Psychiatric Association cancel my Humanitarian Award Lecture on Gaza? by Dr. Mansoor Malik: “When the American Psychiatric Association invited me to deliver the Chester Pierce Human Rights Lecture at its annual meeting this month, I believed the organization was affirming a foundational principle of medicine and psychiatry: that human suffering deserves recognition regardless of politics, nationality, religion, or ideology. The lecture was intended to examine the psychological consequences of mass violence, especially for children and civilians trapped within conditions of war and collective trauma in Gaza. Hours before it was scheduled to begin, the lecture was suddenly canceled. …I was informed that in the days leading up to the lecture, organized outside email campaigns and pressure from advocacy groups intensified against the event, with accusations that discussion of Gaza through the framework of genocide studies or Holocaust scholarship was inherently antisemitic or unsafe.” Read the full article here.
5/28/26: “Israeli minister confirms goal of large-scale expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza”, Emma Graham-Harrison: Israel’s defense minister has said he is committed to the ethnic cleansing of Gaza through large-scale migration of Palestinians as part of Israel’s long-term plans for the territory. Israel Katz said the government would implement a plan for large numbers of Palestinians to leave Gaza “at the right time and in the right manner”, in a statement marking the targeted killing of Mohammed Odeh, Hamas’s most recent military commander. Read the full article here.
5/28/26: “Eid al-Adha in Gaza Is Shrouded in Despair Amid Hamas’ Faltering Ceasefire With Israel” by Jack Khoury: “Gazans observed Eid al-Adha amid widespread poverty, displacement, damaged infrastructure, and uncertainty despite the so-called ‘ceasefire’. Many families could not afford traditional holiday foods, clothing, or livestock and expressed concern that renewed fighting could occur at any time, making the holiday feel more like a period of survival than celebration.” Read the full article here.
6/2/26: “Aipac affiliate has funded lavish trips to Israel for dozens of Congress members since 7 October, filings reveal” by Jason Wilson.
6/5/26: “The White House’s Latest Provocation Is ‘Grotesque and Terrifying and Juvenile’” by M. Gessen: A new anti immigration web page, trolling, insinuating, spreading fear and misinformation, filled with white nationalist dog whistles.